Taste It, Stick It, Lick It (Not naughty as it seems)

Not often does a newborn come, so when opportunity knocks, we savour the moment - a burst of smile, the first walk, even a terrible cry. Lucky if you have a camera nearby, you'll have a lasting memento. Without a camera, you'll probably have to wait for the next child. Newborns come in a flash. They grow so fast, suddenly they're no longer newborns. Huwag ka dapat kukurap baka di mo matikman ang sarap (Don't blink lest you won't have a taste of the moment).

This happened exactly when I unwittingly captured a very tender moment of my child half asleep on the bosom of his mom. That moment is now forever enshrined in my digital archive. I had 60 copies of the picture printed as a postcard. At this time, 15 remain.

I sent out the first batch of postcards by bringing them directly to the post office. Although almost every street corner in Japan has a big red post box, I intentionally wanted to see the reaction of the lady at the counter. As I expected, the lady exclaimed, Kawaii sou (How cute!), as I prepared to leave.

Having gotten the reaction I wanted and savoured the moment as well, I sent out the second batch by sticking them directly into the slot of a post office box. Of course, I also stuck a 70-yen stamp, the value for an international postcard, wherever in the world you're sending - Afghanistan or Zimbabwe.

Sure, there was a third batch and something I must tell. On closer inspection, I noticed that one of the slots of the post box was labeled EXPRESS, INTERNATIONAL MAIL; the other was labeled LETTERS and POSTCARDS. I had postcards going international and a huge problem.

At that instant, I felt confused and even began to doubt whether the second batch reached their destinations, having simply dropped them in the POSTCARDS slot. I felt lucky however since there was a Japanese about to mail her letters. That luck returned to dilemma when, with the typical Japanese sideways head tilt, the Japanese said, gomenasai, yuubinkyoku ni ikimasu (Sorry, better go to the post office).

At the post office, I was greeted not by the same lady but by a seemingly grumpy old man. I handed him the postcards, then he started weighing them one at a time. What for, I asked. There is a weight limit for postcards and three exceeded the limit. I had to pay additional postage, one thing I could have avoided entirely had I not been fussy and simply dropped the cards in any of the slots.

Thinking back I wondered how some of the cards weighed more than the others. Was it the paper? Was it the length of message I wrote on the card? Ahh, it was the glue! I used glue to stick the stamps on the cards. The heavy cards could have had their stamps stuck last and the glue has not dried up.

I still have 15 postcards left and I know exactly what to do with them - drop them in the box after licking and sticking a 70-yen stamp. I can almost taste the stamps.